Israeli strike kills former Palestinian Minister Youssef Salama: Agency

A former Palestinian Authority minister was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency and Hamas health ministry said.

Youssef Salama, the 68-year-old former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency and the ministry reported.

Considered close to Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, Salama served as minister between February 2005 and March 2006.


He also served as a preacher at Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

There was no immediate comment on his killing from the Israeli army.

Israel launched a relentless military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militants carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The militants' attack left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's ongoing Gaza offensive has killed more than 21,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.